ABSTRACT
Most importantly, the Jewish community could learn to look at itself with the eye of an outsider. Concerning the Jewish community: two broad groupings emerged. On one side were the lofty liberal schemers, the distant do-gooders, the principled intellectuals, the latter including some accomplished researchers who are in the habit of shying away from soiling their tools by contacts with folks in the flesh. On the other side stood the bulk of the Jewish middle class, that is, professionals, businessmen, officials and employees of varied descriptions, and—in Forest Hills—a great many older and retired people. Jimmy Breslin should know that Jewish mothers, like all mothers, are concerned about the education of their own children and about their safety on the way to and from school. Indeed, the most powerful conclusion to be drawn from Mario Cuomo's Forest Hills Diary is that what occurred was not so much a clash between Blacks and Jews, but between the community and the bureaucracy.
